|
Received: September 25, 2001
Accepted: October 29, 2001
Ref:
Jani C.B., Gupta B.D. and Patel B. J. Electrocution: Contact Burns. Anil Aggrawal's Internet Journal of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology, 2001; Vol. 2, No. 2 (July - December 2001):
; Published: October 29, 2001, (Accessed:
Email Dr. B.D.Gupta (the corresponding author) by clicking here
|
|
C.B. Jani*, B. D. Gupta* * and B. J. Patel#
|
|
|
|
The interesting question was whether these were endogenous (Joule) burns, or exogenous burns (caused by heating or sparking). There is no surefire way to know this, but since a metallic chain has very low resistance, it can reasonably be surmised that it must not have got heated up. We believe that the high tension current somehow found its way to the metallic chain, and entered the chest from there too, causing Joule burns at that area. Picture 1 is a long shot showing these garland type Joule burns. We propose a new name for these typical burns - Patterned Joule Burns. Picture 2 is a close shot of these Patterned Joule Burns.
(N.B. Click all pictures to enlarge!)
The deceased was loading waste papers (known in vernacular as Pashti) in the truck from the roof of his ground floor shop. Somewhere nearby, a faulty live unguarded wire was present.
His arm accidentally touched that live wire. He got a jolt from elecricity. As a consequence, he was thrown off from the roof and fell down. But while he was falling down, his back came in contact with another live high voltage wire going across his roof. This caused an electric entry mark on his back, as shown in picture 3 above. But what was most interesting was that we found a garland like burn mark around his neck. It was found that at the time he fell down and got the electric shock, he was wearing a metallic chain around his neck. Presumably, the high voltage current found its way through the chain. Since the chain was in contact with the chest at that time, the deceased got these garland like burns.
*Corresponding author and requests for reprints:
B.D. Gupta
Professor of Forensic Medicine
M.P.Shah Medical College
Jamnagar 361008
India
Click here to contact us.
This page has been constructed and maintained by Dr. Anil Aggrawal, Professor of Forensic Medicine, at the Maulana Azad Medical College, New Delhi-110002. You may want to give me the feedback to make this pages better. Please be kind enough to write your comments in the guestbook maintained above. These comments would help me make these pages better.
IMPORTANT NOTE: ALL PAPERS APPEARING IN THIS ONLINE JOURNAL ARE COPYRIGHTED BY "ANIL AGGRAWAL'S INTERNET JOURNAL OF FORENSIC MEDICINE AND TOXICOLOGY" AND MAY NOT BE REPOSTED, REPRINTED OR OTHERWISE USED IN ANY MANNER WITHOUT THE WRITTEN PERMISSION OF THE WEBMASTER
Questions or suggestions ? Please use ICQ 19727771 or email to dr_anil@hotmail.com
Page Professor Anil Aggrawal via ICQ
|
